Defense Minister Margarita Robles caused notable discomfort within the rest of the Government this Tuesday, especially among those closest to Pedro Sánchez, by clashing with the Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska. Both engaged in an obvious war of versions that citizens could follow live in two almost simultaneous appearances in Congress and La Moncloa. Robles repeatedly stated from Congress that the CNI, which she revealed has 25 agents deployed in Ceuta, did warn that there was a lot of movement at the border with the risk of a massive crossing, something that ultimately happened in an unprecedented way, with 80,000 people in two days. And Marlaska, who would have had to take measures if he had known the scale of what was coming, contradicted her radically: “There was no report indicating that on July 30 what happened was going to occur. Can anyone understand that if something like that had been foreseen, with what happened in 2021 [another crossing of 10,000 people], it would not have been escalated to the highest levels to take extraordinary measures?” he pointed out. Marlaska’s message was very clear: while Robles tried to pass the responsibility to him or the Government delegation for not acting despite having reports warning — later she explained they were “verbal” — the Interior Minister was emphatic: no one warned.
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The discomfort was so evident that even the Government delegate in Ceuta, whom according to Robles had been directly informed by the CNI agents deployed in the city, issued a statement to also categorically deny the minister, in an obvious internal crisis within the Government. The statement is also emphatic, as Marlaska was: “Regarding the statements made today by Defense Minister Margarita Robles from the Congress of Deputies, the Government Delegation in Ceuta states the following: this Government Delegation did not receive, at any time, any report warning of what was going to happen on July 30. What was transmitted from this Institution, from the end of July, were daily data on the increase in entries by sea, communicated through the corresponding channels. However, none of those reports allowed for foreseeing what happened on the 30th, as the Interior Minister also reiterated today. Likewise, this Government Delegation insists that it has no competencies regarding the National Intelligence Center (CNI), an agency that has its own communication and reporting channels, separate from this institution.”
The crisis and the war of everyone against Robles was very evident publicly, but privately it was even harsher. Several ministers consulted by EL PAÍS expressed their indignation with Robles, who on previous occasions has shown that she goes her own way and has had public clashes with her colleagues, although this time the dimension is greater because it is a very delicate crisis like that of Ceuta and the minister is attacking the heart of decisions in La Moncloa, clearly accusing other ministers of acting late and poorly.
“She is very disloyal, and above all she is lying, no one saw any report in that regard, we would have acted accordingly,” said one minister. “She does not feel part of the Government as a collegiate body. She goes her own way and tries to save her responsibility. She doesn’t care about anyone else, including the president. She knows she is lying and we all know it,” said another.
Robles is clearly alone in the Government, and this time it is very evident that she goes her own way, but also the clash with Marlaska goes back a long way. Both are veteran judges, have been in Sánchez’s Government from day one, and have had significant tensions in the past although perhaps none as obvious and sensitive as this one about the management of an impossible crisis that is causing great wear for the Government.
Because Robles not only disagreed with Marlaska. She also disagreed with the official version of the management led in La Moncloa by Ángel Víctor Torres, the top official since this Tuesday of the unified command. While Torres said in La Moncloa that the Government’s management had been “correct” and Elma Saiz claimed everything that has been done this month, although she admitted that criticisms “are accepted with humility,” Robles was in Congress apologizing and saying that the Government had arrived late and acted poorly. Even so, and despite this strong discomfort with the Defense Minister, various sources consulted indicate that no one called her to order nor did the president plan to ask her for a correction or anything similar. The Government has accepted that Robles goes her own way and only publicly discredits her when, as this Tuesday, she directly clashes with the version of La Moncloa and Interior and openly throws responsibility to other ministries.
The minister has been going somewhat her own way for some time and does not follow the official doctrine of the Executive. Sources at the highest level usually say when she speaks that hers “is not the Government’s version,” but until now a live clash on such a sensitive issue as responsibility for what happened in Ceuta between the Defense and Interior ministers, two so-called “State” ministries and key in border protection management, had not been seen so clearly.
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Robles opened the offensive first from Congress. In her appearance before the Defense Committee, she said that the information gathered by the 25 CNI agents stationed in Ceuta “was shared and analyzed” with the State Security Forces and the Government Delegation. “The intelligence services and obviously the CNI performed the work that was and is required of them, and shared and analyzed it with the State security forces and the personnel of the Government Delegation,” she stated.
Marlaska responded emphatically from La Moncloa when asked about these words. First, he acknowledged the work of the CNI, but then criticized the minister’s version. “There was no report indicating that on July 30 what happened was going to occur. Can anyone understand that if something like that had been foreseen, with what happened in 2021, it would not have been escalated to the highest levels to take extraordinary measures?” he pointed out.
When the press asked the minister who was telling the truth, him or Robles, and if there could be confusion because the report was verbal and not written, Marlaska concluded: “There is no report of those characteristics with anything similar to what happened. Does anyone doubt that if it had existed, it would have been escalated to the highest levels? We receive reports daily on various matters. I will not go into further issues.” Marlaska thus maintained what he has defended from the beginning, that there was no report.
The Interior Minister insisted that not only the CNI, but “no other intelligence service from friendly countries nor any other intelligence investigation group suspected anything similar.” Even so, he reiterated that he is “convinced” that “everyone acted evidently correctly.”
And it was Robles who replied again at the end of her intervention in Congress. “If there are reports, if there are no reports… Intelligence services operate in many ways,” she said. In this regard, she stressed that “it is often not necessary to have handwritten reports.” “It is known, it was public and notorious, that people were entering Ceuta by swimming […] Without the need for reports from anyone or with reports from someone that are secret […] On the 29th those officials who are there [the CNI in Ceuta] conveyed and reported to the Government Delegation about that gathering for the next day to be able to enter by swimming taking advantage of that holiday in the neighboring country,” insisted the Defense Minister.
The clash is thus very evident, capped by the denial note to the minister from the Government delegation, something also unprecedented, but nothing indicates that it will have practical consequences beyond an obvious political loneliness of Robles within the Government that she had already been suffering for some time. Nothing indicates that Sánchez is thinking of replacing her, not even calling her to order.
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